Wednesday night – meet Luigi

We met downstairs in the hotel at 8AM , grabbed breakfast and walked outside to meet *LUIGI* !. Luigi is the driver we hired to help us find our way through rural Italy . We thought pretty hard about how to get around … we looked into planes, trains, buses… then we decided to rent a car.. but after thinking about it more we decided to hire a driver… and it is looking like that was the best decision we could have made !

Luigi has been driving folks for 25 years.. (including folks like tom hanks) he speaks perfect english and is super fun to be with. We jumped in the van and were soon on our way to Abruzzo … the ancestral homeland of Diane’s dads family. I cant tell you too much about the drive because like anytime I get in a car, I fall instantly asleep 🙂

We stopped for a snack and realized we werent in kansas anymore

about 3 hours later we got to Casacanditella in Abruzzo.. It’s very near Fara Fallorum Petri where Diane’s grandmother was from. We’re rented an AirBnb from Valerio and his wife. THe place is called Villa Panarama and it is sooooo beautiful !

The house is a ways down a dirt road/path that is too gnarly for Luigis nice van.. ao we walk there and back when we want to meet him. It’s kinda nice.. no neighbors .. just olives, grapes, figs and us !

Our first stop was the nearest city Guardiagrele . The city was a nice surprise. It’s old city center was atop a hill (like many of the cities we will visit) .. (I dont think i’ve ever used the word “atop”)

We were wandering around the town when we accidentally ran into our airbnb landlord. He lives down one of the tiny streets in a building tha used to be his grandfathers private hospital. His kitchen is the old operating theater. His family crest was on this cool old wall on the cathedral.

Next stop was Fara Fallorum Petri. The town where both of Diane’s father’s parents were born. Diane’s grandfather died in the early 1960s.. Her grandmother was a wonderful presense in our lives until 1995.

It was so cool walkign the same streets they did. .

We were about to leave when we saw luigi walking up the street with this guy. Turns out the guy whose name was Franco was from the regions record office. They hasd started talkign because franco was wearign a Roma Soccor shirt.. Luigis favorite team.. We talked to Franko for a while and he told us (via Luigi’s translation) that there were many folks who had moved back from the US to Fara. He told us there was even a woman from Binghampxon on the street.

We had read about the Farchie an annual festival in January that commemorates a ‘miricale’ when the residents of Fara were able to turn away some attacking French soldiers by lighting trees on fire. Durign the Farchi the residents make bundles of reeds 20 feet tall and packed with fireworks and light them up in the town square ! (Kinda like their own burning man !)

There were signs of the Farchie spread around town.

We were about to leave town when Franco found us again and tld us to come with him. He introduced us to Maria.. the woman on his street who was born in Bighampton,. raised in Rochester then moved back to Fara. It was so fun talkig to her. She spoke enlgish (of course) with a Western NY accent.. and perfect Fara Italian. Her last name is Deritis… and her family was in one of the wonderful genealogy books we’re carrying that were written by DIanes brother Steve ! She’s a very distant relative by marriage to diane.